Right! some of those vents look promising, I’ll use all the extra ammo to shoot them open and try and squeeze through. Hmmm.. they look pretty tight, probably got to ditch the armour and clothes, also might have to lube myslef up possibly using something from the food supplies, is there any mayonaise in there?
ah! you got me! I’ll take any excuse to get all naked and mayonaised up!! …

This is the first comic from you that’s made me want to actually BE in it. I was ready to jump in and head for adventure or obliteration before I finished reading the second paragraph.
Great premise and prose.
A+

I’d jump in the teleporter. Might hang around for a couple of days before hand to get a handle on things, possibly see if I could rig up a device to test the teleporter before I went through it. But I’d go… might end up leaving the gun behind though. A) I wouldn’t be very good with it. B) I might jump into the middle of an alien shopping mall, and be gunned down out of fear. C) I might jump into the middle of an alien shopping mall and gun someone else down out of fear.

I’m sure there’s a metaphor here somewhere, and I’m not sure if my answer above is honest. Even with hindsight it can be difficult to tell which of life’s decisions were the teleport, and which were staying in the room. Other decisions probably demand a different metaphor.

On a less personal perspective, I can see the comic reflecting on humanities future. The room then reflects the Earth, current socio-economic structures, possibly even some exotic boundaries in the current laws of physics or biology.

>inv
You are carrying:
Blastomatic rifle (full)
Emotional Baggage
A matchbook
>open emotional baggage
The Emotional Baggage contains:
Little Susie’s Mocking Laughter
The Thump of Your Father’s Boots When He Came Home Late
The Way Your Mother Said ‘That’s Really Good, Honey!’ But You Could See She was cringing
The Swirlies, Oh The Swirlies
Books Is For Fags, Are You A Fags?
You’ll Never Make It In This Economy
Take Some Responsibility, Get An Adult job
(type ‘more’ to continue list)

>close emotonal baggage
You don’t see any ’emotonal baggage’

>close emotional baggage
You close the Emotional Baggage

>enter teleporter
The Emotional Baggage gets caught on the edge of the teleporter! You don’t get anywhere.

Is this another one inspired by the artistic process? Boy, it sure seems like it. Excellent stuff. There is so much small detail in those panels, no wonder you get daunted some weeks and have to call off– I don’t blame you. Thanks for this one!

Dude, you’re a genius. Well, not always a genius, but this comic is certainly a rare gem, I think it is one of the best you ever made. Great job. Would be nice if every comic here was of the same quality.

When you live – you face a choices, many of them. Frequently you have to choose between safety and unknown. But no matter what you do, in the end you still die (well, unless you’re lucky to find immortality medicine). This comic perfectly captures that.

Also it reminds me a question I saw once somewhere on the interenet:
“Let’s assume there is afterlife. But instead of going to hell or heaven, once you die, you have two choices: true death (your identity will disappear with no trace) or eternal torment in hell (your mind will exist forever). Which one would you pick?”

Try teleporting the predecessors first – it’s not like they’re going to stop you, and they might draw some fire away from yourself. Or reveal that the self-proclaimed teleporter really /is/ a suicide booth.

So you can either get bored to death or use the teleporter? Not much of a choice, really.
Until some kind soul explains what’s so interesting about this I’ll assume you’re all under the spell of some sort of wizard.

I guess you have to decide if it’s a situation that demands a tactical analysis of teleporting into a dangerous area, or if it’s one of those artsy thingies that look like one thing but mean something, whatever they’re called.
Decide.

Option 4.) Use hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, speak-no-evil dudes, put them in stop-action-style poses, and do voice-overs as you pretend they’re The Three Stooges performing their various antics. After the reality of the situation seeps in, THEN salvage what you can off their guns and armor, and moonwalk into the fateful transporter.

Taking the story literally, it’s a no-brainer. Unless I have reason to think I’ll be found soon, I’ll eventually have to use the teleporter. The supplies can’t possibly last for more than a few days, and I’d rather die in a shootout than slowly starve to death, thank you very much.

But since this is a metaphor on taking risks, I don’t know what I would do. What worries me is that I might be facing such a choice in the next couple of years.

@Hazza: It’s supposed to be the beginning of a work of interactive fiction. In these stories, you choose between possible paths and get a different outcome depending on your choice. Look up “interactive fiction”, you’ll get it.

Very interesting comic. Reminds me somewhat of amnesiac videogame starts, but more unsettling since, well, if it was real life, there is no restarting, but just like them, what is there to do other then to take the risk and go for it? Stagnate and not play the game of life?🙂

1. Loot the other guys for more ammo. you can never have enough ammo.
2. masturbate
3. cry
4. try to figure out what all the cool armour can do.
5. put back all the looted ammo after thinking about it.
6. see if there is anything to drink.
7. masturbate
8. cry
9. do all this while slowly moving closer to the teleporter. And when I least expect it- jump into it an see where it goes.
10. Stand on the other side shooting the shit out of everyhting for 10 minutes before realising my dick is still out.
11. Add to my emotional baggage the image of a 15 foot alien beserker with grenade launchers for hands giggling at my exposed member.

A wise man once said to me, When life offers you an action sequence, the only correct answer is ‘Yes!’
Or possibly ‘Get to ze choppah!’

Also, I wanted to say, those are some cool-ass rifles you drew there, Winston. Actually they seem vaguely related to Shango’s fusion cannon, although the magazines and cocking lever kind of imply bullets.

The eventual choice is obvious: take the teleporter. You’re pitting the unknown against absolute boredom lasting either a few decades for old age, a month or so for starvation (assuming the supplies in that crate are analogous to actual military rations in terms of volume) or a few weeks for asphyxiation if the room contains no air scrubbers. And on the other hand, adding sci-fi elements on top of “Running Man” suspicions means that expecting the worst fate from the teleporter involves your entrails being eaten before your final conscious thought flees the dying body.

In this very dramatic match-up, only the most lethargic cankle-sporting slouch would choose to stay. Boredom is like that- it builds up over time. For all you know, those three skeletons were posed like that by the last guy to pass through, who stuck around long enough to start doing silly things with dead bodies. For all you know he decided to cut himself up a bit, fleck the teleporter and make the next guy a little scared. The problem with this kind of metacognitive second-guessing is there’s no end to it- risks in real life are never this black-and-white.

Spencer: Me too. This comic is me not being entirely content with that lately, i suppose you could say.

Hazza: Not “getting” it doesn’t make you an idiot, especially when you WANT to get it. What’s it all about? That’s up to you. To me it’s a metaphor for cowardice (loosely structured like those unintentionally creepy “Choose Your Own Adventure” kids’ books) but that’s just me. A coward wouldn’t post a comment he/she was terrified of saying, so good on yer for taking the teleporter (to pretentiously harness my own metaphor..).

pG: Hey, you just described my weekend.

Richter: I like it.

Saurabh: Yeah, Doom was certainly an influence (favorite game ever), to possibly understate the issue.

I just did, upped and gace my notice at work today and Im off to be a Pharmacokinetic Scientist. Whats one of them do? I HAVE NO IDEA! But I was sick of my current job and wanted a change.
Change Is Good. Ask a frog.

I have to admit… I’m impressed by the message and all… and I found the CYOA format rather hilarious…

But my pull-away reaction to this strip is “Holy Crap! Look at all of that wall detail! How long did it take to get that heavy of an industrial look for the room? So much detail! And numerous panels, no less! I’m not that patient! Look how fine those lines are!”

I loved this one! I rarely comment, but I read every week, and occasionally I need to comment on the brilliant ones (they’re all brilliant, but some are truly inspiring). I take it as a metaphor for those people who see an injustice in the world, but do nothing to stop it. They might shut their eyes and plug their ears to pretend it’s not happening, or shut their mouths and just stay with the status quo. It can be scary to go against the majority, like how the flecks of blood represent the social turmoil others have gone through when they try to change things for the better. Most just sit around and let bad things happen, even if they’re fully prepared to deal with the situation. They keep thinking about all the things that could go wrong, or waiting for someone else to do something, when they should just jump right in and solve it out themselves. Truly inspiring Winston, and it can be applied to so many different situations.

Of course that’s just my interpretation, and in no way do I feel it is the “right” one. I love ambiguous art. Thank you.

Picking up on the fact that the dead guys had been rearranged in poses, and that their armour was not marked or scratched and the guns were fully loaded, ie. never fired.

And also that the walls and floor were unmarked.

Suggests a set up.

If I found myself in a totally enclosed space but armed with powerful weapons I am sure as hell going to test them on the floor and walls and maybe on the ceiling as well.

That the dead guys never did this, suggests that they were never were alive in this room, not in that armour and not with those weapons.

Therefore they were doubly posed.

To what purpose?

It is just like Saw I through III.

The hidden observer is waiting to see if I will voluntarily walk into the teleporter/execution chamber.

Or maybe there is more than one observer and they are taking bets on which option I choose.

After attempting the obvious ie. blowing the walls with my and my companions weapons, I also take the opportunity to inflict as much damage on this set up as possible to make it useless to restage this scenario for any other victims.

One of your best pieces so far, without fail.
Art and writing are absolutely stunning.

I think, though, the title could be better chosen; after all, the choice the protagonist is faced with is not to chose among the many adventures possible his own, but to chose an adventure at all, or rather, he is faced with making a choice. Is that one adventure among many other possible ones?

@Jenny
With your reasoning, I agree that this is probably a set up, but blasting the room and scoring the walls with laser fire would actually demoralize the next person put in the room even more than you. You can see that this might not be as bad as it originally looks, but the next person would see a room blasted up and ruined, and with still no way out other than the teleporter. I’d personally clean up all the blood flecks I found before entering the teleporter, Maybe carve an arrow above the ventilation grate you can see in the middle picture right after the 3rd paragraph down. Make the room appear to have more choices than it actually does. I think that would help someone cope with their first sights a little bit better.

Winston
I’ve read all your comics over the years, every week I look forward to a new one. Sometimes I browse through the archives in search of some of those gems you have created.

Reflection and self awareness especially in regard to cowardice are a recurring theme in your comics, best illustrated in “A Cowards Tale” maybe one of your best.

Choose your Own Adventure was far from bad, I wouldn’t be writing this if it was shit. The premises was there; to remain in what seems like a comfortable place or to verge out and face the seemingly dangerous unknown, the atmosphere was right, drawn well, and how wise were the three monkey?

No it was the medium; it was the scenario it was the teleporter! that turned something that could have been a masterpiece into something that I would describe as very good.

I am not saying the Sci Fi scenario doesn’t express your message in a creative, original and entertaining way but it just doesn’t do the subject matter Execution Style justice.

If you’ve had any reservations about this comic and feel as if it is inadequate I am encouraging you to go with your instincts and redo it.

That was… shockingly inspiring. The same message I always want to take, find so very powerful, and somehow NEVER NEVER GET, not fully. I’ve loved Subnormality ever since I was initially linked to it months ago. I suppose I have more than one favourite. But this? This, I would buy a poster of.

Time to stop poking around on the internet and pack for my impending cross-country move.

YOU ARE different. Unlike your close forefather?/mother? YOU won’t be yawning. You’ll defend your beloved homeland territory against type A- and B-blood til your last O-drops. No one will be allowed to teleport alive into your secured area.

Every time SB moves me – laughter, grinning, thinking. Rereading this week’s comic makes me want to do something… following my own damn advice and asking that salesgirl I like out; or putting down the beers and hitting the gym… anything.

Thank you Mr Rowntree, for getting us out of our little comfort zone. Comics that do that are rare.

This is brilliant. You really captured the anxiety ridden and over-analytical mindset and the hesitation that it can bring. I especially liked the line
“you are good at being alone.
you are so good at being alone”
and the the last line was great too.
This strip retreads ground already covered by “A Cowards Tale” but I think I find this one has more emotional impact. It’s especially great how a sense of desperation and fear seeps through the justifications.
I love the art and am one more person who tottaly apreciated the Doom style feel to it.
Keep up the good work and thank you.

Every once in a while you truly amaze me exactly how well you capture a world within your words. This comic, for example, takes five minutes to read and already feels like an existing world on par with works like the Cube film. The sense of mystery is everywhere in this strip! I caught myself not only wondering what is on the other side, but also what else is there to the room? What would happen if I was in there? would I climb up? Do I have as long as I want to decide what I want to do? Also, why are the previous subjects positioned in such a way? Is there an evil in the room that makes the one on the other side of the transporter pale in comparison?

I hope to see other creations from you on par with this or your last Christmas strip in the future!

At first I thought that the three dead guys had gone through the teleporter, and upon meeting/hearing/laying eyes upon something that man was never meant to see, and promptly died of shock. Perhaps it was some sort of Elder God, or some great cosmic revelation, that instantly would destroy any man’s sanity. Then, whatever forces dragged you here put their bodies up on display, just to make you wonder. Or maybe not. That was just a first impression.

Or maybe they just got bored, and struck some weird poses. Either way, I’d rather go through a quick, and probably extremely painful death, as opposed to rotting in that room, slowly going insane from solitary confinement, elements of sensory deprivation, and boredom. After all, I’ve got a chance at surviving through the teleporter, and it strikes me as fun, blasting through alien zombie hordes or whatever.

Maybe I’m taking this too literally. All that aside, this comic was genius, in a very unconventional way.

Choose Your Own Adventure holds a special place in my childhood heart, as do the (Jack) Kirbian themes you used (was that intentional?).

I’ve been nagging for a while now for something different, and you certainly delivered. I love the undertones of the narrative’s metaphor, and especially the ending “resolution.” But it isn’t really a resolution at all. As a writer, I understand and appreciate that endings don’t have to, and often shouldn’t, follow a traditional arc. I don’t think this needs (or even wants) a sequel as a comik, but it’d make a hell of a first chapter.

Hi Winston, No Hablo here again. I just wanted to let you know that this is the first time I’ve felt any sort of inspiration in months. Literally months. Lots of them, too. Unfortunately I still don’t give enough of a shit about myself to choose the dignified choice: 2.

“You may poll your predecessors for advice.” One of the most brilliant punchlines I’ve ever read. It provides a final “boo!” in the revelation that you are not alone. It changes the game in the revelation that you are not the first. It’s absurd to ask a skeleton anything, and yet they grant the greatest advice of all, despite being posed as the universal symbol of willful ignorance.

The second skeleton stayed right where he was seated despite one skeleton in the room. The third stayed despite two skeletons. How many skeletons would have to be there before the thought of staying became unbearable.

“It appears you have been prepared for a task.” This reminds me of something I read in an essay by one of those British Vertigo comic writers. Fifty years ago, superheroes were the only ones outside of government or university who owned computers; they were the only ones at all with portable communicators. We are the best educated and equipped generation in human history. We are mighty.

There are quite a few ways to interpret this, and I wonder if that wasn’t the artist’s intentions all along.

For me, I feel that it is an expression of the human condition- We tend toward comfort of risk- even when prepared, we would remain in the known, knowing how it will end, then go out into the unknown. The three sinless monkeys (or predecessors in this case) are an allegory for ignorance, as they always are.

It is easy to remain comfortably ignorant than to face and embrace reality.

The choice was no choice for me. I would enter the teleporter and never look back, whatever else may happen.

Heroes against the Trollbait; still, who says it was a beneficent Carmack who canned the backstory? Take time to chuckle at the evidence of futile search for water by the predecessors, and test that thing first!

Brilliant. I know a lot of people (myself included) would wait a while in the room, looking for some other way out, without the courage to proceed.

However, eventually, I’d take the teleporter. It wouldn’t be easy, but in a situation like that, you don’t really have another option. It’s always better to take a chance with the unknown and do the best you can with whatever life throws at you than to sit in mundane comfort forever, alive but not really living.

Which, I suppose, is the entire point of the strip. Really great stuff.

Looking at this strip again, made me ‘recall’ that the ‘teleporter’ is not a teleporter at all, but a time machine stuck in an endless feed back loop. The three skeletons, are all me from earlier loops back from a future that hasn’t happened yet.

So who arranged me, in the classic three monkeys poses?

I’m afraid that was me too, but I can’t disclose to you the reason I did this, without needless risk to the whole reality time continuum as you know it.

My first act would be bewilderment; why do I not remember the circumstances in which I was placed?

I would shout to the room: “Hey, I think I lost my memory- you guys are going to send me somewhere without remembering who I am?”

Then I would realize: My people have given me the memories of someone extremely experienced in video games where this situation is commonplace. I would laugh.

Curiosity about my predecessors would stun me for only a couple of seconds and provoke a mild giggle.

I would test the function and the use of my armor and every weapon in the room. I would carry as many supplies as I could fit with me into the teleporter, attempting to strike a balance between food, water, and ammunition. I would make sure that my armor was sealed as much as possible, helmet down and all systems engaged; it’s quite possible that the teleporter opens directly to an environment not habitable by organic life.

You must enter the teleporter. a life not explored is a life not lived. you are prepared for what you face, now is right of fire, a second birth. you must embrace the future in all its wonder in all possibilities.

This is one of the only comics I’ve ever read that I found genuinely terrifying. It reminds me of some horrible nightmare I used to have, the memory of which I seem to have almost entirely blocked except for the feeling of enormous dread.

I wouldn’t think about the next guy. I would be more concerned with my own survival.

I would take or eat most of the food, blast the room/skeletons to test my weapons, and maybe, just to be an asshole, put easy-to-read-through cross-out marks on the “Extreme Danger” sign and write “free cookies!!”.

This reminds me of the old Heavy Metal, when the stories were often bewildering, unsettling, and thought provoking no matter how good or bad the translation was. The tone is the same, and the artwork too. Corben, Frazetta, Moebius; stories that start and stop suddenly, wrought with meaning but only hinting at origin, context, or resolution. The better Anime [FLCL, Big-O] have continued this tradition, and then sometimes we’re treated to gems like this one.

At first I thought the comics on here were supposed to be purely funny, too, and was caught off-guard when I learned a lot of them were just philosophical and deep. But they’re really good. If you’re just looking for laughs, I’m sorry, you won’t find that here, although there are more than enough funny moments in the comics.

make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~make a book~I would drop sick chedder on said book

This was simply wonderful. there is no other way to describe it. its a perfect example of why this comic is so good, a deep and intersting work that is still not devoid of humour. i loved ever word of it….

The Edge
There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know what it is are the ones who have gone over.
Hunter s Thompson

Fear is that edge. the paralysis onset by the mind. stuck on future outcomes instead of present realities. Engrossed with what if’s and should haves. Doubt of ones own will and ability to survive. The stripping away of ones Godly divine rights to survive is done by none other ones own mind. Some say the mind is the most powerful thing on the planet separating us from animals. But what is a mind if its god is not present enough to control it…It is doubt, and indecision. THINKING about the possibilities and ways to survive will ensure the mind survives. To act, turn the mind off and surrender control of an outcome. this is what much of humanity struggles with. Good comic.

Had the fighting fantasy novels I perused as a child been of this caliber, I would doubtlessly have grown up more cerebral and introspective – which would probably have resulted in me being shunned even further.

Great comic, I have to say I havent read any personal scenario that thought provoking. I know this isnt really called for, but this is basically what I’d do in that situation.

I would accept the circumstances as they are, the peace, the quiet, the solitude. Seeing the portal in front of me, I would not go through. Though given supplies and ability, the ability to reject a possibility can be seen as a reward in and of itself. You have power, the ability in to essentially destroy all that lies beyond the portal in the visage of insignificance. I at least, would have peace. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. After all, isnt the base of evil suffering?

so you may think this is stupid but this strip in particular was very inspirational for me, i’ll be leaving to China for a year because I decided to take risks, I don’t know if that is what the strip tried to say but it meant that for me, so thanks

My god. I’m probably one of the… less outgoing people here, but reading this this late at night creeped me the hell out. Big time. If I was that scared with a creepy narrative in that situation, I probably would’ve stayed in that chamber until I died T_T The metaphor still kicks ass, though, so great work as usual.

This one. This has always been the one that hit me hardest, or affected me the most, or whatever the proper phrase is for that particular combination of emotions and trains of thought and what-have-you.